Case Closed Season Four Box Set

Guest Author - Lesley Aeschliman

The Case Closed Season Four DVD box set is a four-disc set that contains episodes 80 through 105 of the Case Closed anime series. The first disc has seven episodes, discs two and three have six episodes, and the fourth disc has seven episodes and the bonus features. On the discs, you have the option of watching the series with the English dub or with the original Japanese audio with English subtitles.

The two main types of mysteries that appear in these episodes are murders and kidnappings. Two of the murders that take place in the episodes happen in the exact same hospital; both times, Kougoro/Richard is in the hospital, because he breaks the same leg twice.

There are seven sets of multiple part episodes included in this set as well. One of these sets was originally a two-hour special that was aired in Japan, and this special was split into four parts when it was dubbed into English. I had a couple of issues in regards to this special. First, I found the new English title it was given to be rather misleading. Secondly, I thought this two-hour special would have worked better if it had been released as two one-hour specials; there's only a tenuous link between the two mysteries that make up this special.

Another interesting thing to note is the fact that the "Conan's Next Hint" segment that appeared after the end of the recap is no longer there. I don't know whether this happened when the series was originally produced in Japan, or if FUNimation decided to cut it out. Regardless of who removed it, I think it was time for that segment to come to an end; there were times when the hint that was given in it made it easy to figure out the answer in the next episode.

Even with my complaints about the two-hour special, I still found myself enjoying the mysteries and trying to figure out who committed the crime before Conan does. While it's a little frustrating at times to see the series relying a lot on the same types of mysteries, I'm not sure whether this was the fault of Gosho Aoyama (the creator of the manga series), or if the company that produced the anime was trying to come up with their own stories at this point, since I haven't read this far in the Case Closed manga yet.

Once again, there are only three bonus features included in the set. The first is a "Character Spotlight" for Harley Hartwell; this is one page of text with a picture to accompany it. The second feature is "Conan's Gadgets," and there are actually two items featured here: the Homing Glasses and the Solar-Powered Skateboard. For both items, there is text describing the item, as well as a picture of Conan using the gadget. The final extra is trailers for other properties that FUNimation was promoting at the time this DVD box set was released. Overall, the bonus features are what I've come to expect from these releases, but I was pleasantly surprised to see two of Conan's gadgets featured instead of just one.

The Case Closed Season Four DVD box set is a decent release, and it's worth adding to your anime home video library if you're a fan of the Case Closed anime series.

I wrote this review after watching a copy of this DVD box set that my husband gave me as a gift.

Disc 1

Disc 2

Mysterious Masked Murder Part 1Mysterious Masked Murder Part 2The Revengeful RobberDead HoboTwo Times Trouble Part 1Two Times Trouble Part 2The Set Up

Massacre Night Part 1Massacre Night Part 2Find the Kidnap Site!For The BirdsVampire Villa Part 1Vampire Villa Part 2